OREGON: Alleged Victim In Terry Bean Case Accused Of Evading Subpoena

Earlier this week I reported that the teenage alleged victim in the Terry Bean sexual abuse case had vanished and that the trial might be called off without him. Yesterday prosecutors accused the unnamed youth and his mother of engaging in an elaborate series of ruses to avoid being served with a subpoena which orders him to appear for next week's trial.

Oregon law enforcement, along with investigators in California, attempted to serve the teen in San Diego County on July 26 after a judge in Lane County rejected a defense plan to dismiss the case. Once in California, however, detectives learned that the teen had quit both of his jobs in the days that followed the judge’s decision and had disappeared with his mother, who had flown from her home in Oregon to meet the youth in California on July 18 as the trial date approached. The pair then took an Amtrak train back to Eugene with tickets purchased by a friend of the boy’s mother, the document states. Officers returned to Oregon, determined who had bought the tickets and interviewed that person. That individual told police she bought the tickets, picked the two up from the train station when they arrived in Eugene and allowed them to stay in her home in Cottage Grove. The boy’s mother paid her friend in cash for the train tickets and later asked her to rent a car for them. During this time, the teen and his mother had turned off both of their cellphones and were using a “burner,” or untraceable prepaid phone, to communicate to avoid police detection. They also avoided using any credit cards to keep their activities secret from police, prosecutors said.

The now 17 year-old, who reportedly hooked up with HRC co-founder Bean and his then-boyfriend on Grindr in 2013, has said that the sex was consensual and that he doesn't want to press charges. Last month an Oregon judge rejected Bean's attempt to settle the case with a payment to the alleged victim. The amount of the proposed settlement was not disclosed. Citing the alleged victim's evasion tactics, yesterday the lead prosecutor requested a continuance in the case. Earlier this week the judge had warned him that trial schedule was to be strictly adhered to. Should the alleged victim be served with the subpoena in time, he faces contempt of court charges if he fails to appear.